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The Lonely Way is the sixth and final chapter in the audio-fiction series, The Sounds of Nightmares.
Description
There is no going back. It is now time for The Counsellor to do everything he can to sink, sink lower and lower... all the way down into The Nowhere with Noone.
Plot
The chapter begins with the Counsellor breathing heavily, distressed as he listens to the recording of his final session with Noone.
The story switches to The Counsellor earlier in the night, repairing the apparatus that exploded in chapter 5. Although the monitor is broken, the apparatus is now functional enough to be used again. Amidst the repairs, the Counsellor had additionally incorporated feedback resistors to maintain a more accurate signal between him and Noone. However, he is unsure if this new addition to the apparatus will be able to maintain the signal between just the two of them, while keeping away the figure he saw the night before, as he does not want the apparatus to explode again from its intense presence. Despite having repaired the apparatus to an enough extent, Noone remains the most important piece needed to ensure it works, as she is the one who must send back a frequency from the other side, unfortunately, she has become unreliable. After Otto turns on the apparatus to make sure it is functioning, he reveals that Noone had vanished two nights ago, once again having traveled to Nowhere. Although he feared she would not return, he was later shocked to learn that Noone had returned that morning, her body manifesting in the ward's south-wing courtyard. Unlike her previous vanishing episodes, this recent travel to the Nowhere lasted the entire night. Unfortunately, ever since her return, she has been confined to her room where she has since been under constant watch.
Unsure as to why Noone had returned after proclaiming to him that she had trusted the Ferryman’s words, he deduces that her return is a sign of the Ferryman’s attempts to toy with him, to make him feel powerless in his ongoing attempts to find a way into the Nowhere.
The Counsellor notices the moonlight pointing to the painting of "The Zahir’s Gaze", as if recalling his first session with Noone, back in chapter 1. As the Counsellor stares at the painting, he has a moment of revelation. Much like how the Zahir’s Gaze depicts a hidden image of an astrolabe, a device used to locate positions in time and space, he is now willing to see Noone as his own guiding instrument, one he will use to locate what is too far away for him to reach on his own. If he is unable to reach the Ferryman on his own, then he will use Noone and have her bring the Ferryman to him.
The recording switches to the Counsellor walking down a hall. Upon arriving to Noone’s room, he looks at the employee standing guard and instructs them to leave. As the employee leaves, the Counsellor takes out a set of keys and uses one of the keys to unlock the door to Noone’s room.
Inside the room, Noone is unhappy as she hears someone enter the room again, but is greatly displeased and annoyed to learn the one entering the room is the Counsellor. The Counsellor greets her in a happy mood, asking how she is. However, Noone does not respond to his greeting, telling him she does not wish to speak to him. Despite understanding it is within Noone’s right to not speak to him, he informs her that he is still willing to listen to her nonetheless, but his proclamation only angers Noone more as she tells him he has never truly listened to her. Noone looks at his empty hands, questioning if he has given up on trying to bribe her with things such as cake and flowers, in exchange for more information about the Ferryman and the Nowhere.
Although the Counsellor tries to seem more sympathetic towards her by understanding her frustrations about not being told about the tumor in her head and that he should have never told her in the first place in order to spare her from the torment of knowing, Noone does not believe him given she has grown to understand when he is lying and knows he had an ulterior motive for not telling her.
Noone informs the Counsellor of her mothers words of wisdom, telling him how keeping the truth from others cannot change anything. Despite understanding her mothers words, he questions Noone if she would truly believe this if the intention of the person holding the truth, only wanted to spare the other person from unnecessary pain.
The Counsellor tries to make the truth about the tumor seem less frightening by informing her it is benign and will not pose any real life threatening risk to her. Noone does not care if the tumor is potentially harmless. What hurt her more was not knowing she had it and him not telling her she had it, despite how much she tried to tell him how she felt there was something inside her head the entire time, since the day they met.
Noone believes the Counsellor is lying to her again, withholding the truth about the true threat the tumor holds. The Counsellor admits he does not know the true threat the tumor holds over her, but understands that the body knows when something is wrong before the mind does. However, the only way to understand what the body is saying is by learning how to understand what it is feeling so as to better listen to it. Noone reminds the Counsellor that understanding what the body is feeling and learning how to listen to it is supposed to be his profession, yet he has not been upholding his duty in regards to helping her.
Despite his past unwillingness to focus his attention on what Noone had to say about the turmoil she felt from her body, to better understanding what it was trying to say, he tries to make amends by telling Noone that now is the time to for them to be completely devoted and focused on what her body is trying to tell them. The Counsellor wants Noone to stop rejecting his help and instead permit him to help her once again, however, Noone does not want to as she is fed up with machines, tests, and him.
Despite Noone’s unwillingness to cooperate, the Counsellor tries to convince her that the apparatus he used on her two nights prior to look into her mind, will work again to help them, as it alone has provided results that go beyond anything he has learned on his own as it showed him images not of their world, and on the first day of its use no less.
The Counsellor further holds the apparatus in high regards, as well as it’s capability to help them, by telling Noone it has the power to connect their brains and allow him to look through her into the Nowhere. The Counsellor swears he can help her just as he always promised, but the only way he will be able to truly help her is by speaking to the Ferryman himself. Noone is surprised to hear the Counsellor say the name "Ferryman". Although the Counsellor realizes he accidentally spoke the wrong name, he tries to correct himself by instead referring to the Ferryman as the Candleman. Unfortunately, Noone catches on and realizes that “Ferryman” is what Cici referred to the Candleman as, revealing to her that Cici had also encountered the Candleman before finally disappearing from the Counsellor’s life and into the Nowhere.
The Counsellor tries to convince Noone that Cici’s encounter with the Candleman is only further proof that he is the key to helping him understand everything. Noone is angered to once again learn that all the turmoil she has experienced under him as well as his machines and tests, were still for his own benefit and not to help her. Noone feels a deep distress and frustration over everything that has happened to her, her headache worsening and her time in the ward only further impacting her negatively as the employees are now maintaining a constant watch over her. Despite how desperate she is to sleep, she has resisted sleeping as she is too fearful of what will happen to her once she travels to the Nowhere again.
Upset over Noone’s lack of cooperation, he tells her the apparatus requires her to be asleep in order for it to work, as her sleeping brain will generate theta waves, patterns, that the device will use to connect their minds, and once it has tuned their brainwaves, they will be able to experience mutual dreaming. Although Noone does not understand anything he has told her, the Counsellor simply tells her that through his machine, they will finally be able to face her monsters together. Noone reluctantly agrees to the Counsellor’s procedure if it means she will finally be able to sleep in peace, to which the Counsellor promises she will. The Counsellor's voice switches to a more menacing tone, stating she will sleep deeper than ever before.
Later, Noone and the Counsellor arrive at the session room where the apparatus sits. Noone notices the two metal webs the Counsellor is holding. He informs her the webs are caps that will fit onto their heads, the caps material will transmit electrical pulses into their brains which will connect them to the apparatus. The caps will not need to be inserted into their bodies so they are harmless. As the Counsellor puts on his cap to show her how it works, Noone contemplates what she has agreed to and tells him she has changed her mind, she doesn't want to proceed. The Counsellor denies her request as it is too late for her to turn back, they will proceed. The Counsellor reaches into the jar of candy and takes three candies to give to Noone, stating that eating them will put her at ease. Noone denies the candy as her stomach feels too ill to eat anything. The Counsellor rejects her decision to not eat the candy and tells her to take them in a more demanding tone. Noone reluctantly agrees to take the candy.
The Counsellor tells Noone that as she drifts off into a sleep, the session will begin just as any other, with him asking her where she traveled to the last time she slept. Noone looks at the candy and eats one, thinking as she chews. After taking a deep breath to prepare herself, she recounts her recent visit to the Nowhere.
Noone recounts that as soon as she closed her eyes, she found herself drifting through an endless darkness. After feeling as if she had been in the dark for hours, she suddenly found herself in a decaying cluttered room. As she looked around, she saw mountains of patterned fabrics piled against the walls, a long wooden table covered in scraps and tools. Behind the closed door across from her, she could hear a machine whirring.
In the room, she caught the scent of a familiar smell, candy apples. Noone additionally noticed the enchanting sad music playing in the room. Noone looked over to one of the walls and saw a rack of clothes that were too big for her, but just the right size for the armless, faceless mannequins she saw all around the room. In addition to the clothes in the room, the mannequins themselves already wore clothing. One mannequin wore a white wedding dress splashed with dark stains, another wore a purple suit with a red bowtie, and on a third mannequin, she saw a black velvet cloak. Noone pauses, realizing that she is feeling strangely at ease after eating the candy. She looks at the second piece of candy in her hand and eats it before continuing.
In the room, she discovered a wooden chest and lifted the lid to see it stuffed with smaller outfits. In the chest she saw a doctor's coat, a pink tutu and shoes, and a yellow raincoat. The mention of a yellow raincoat alarms the Counsellor, he excitedly asks Noone if she saw anyone else in the room, but Noone tells him only the puppet was in the room with her. The Counsellor asks about the puppet, but before Noone responds, she looks at the last piece of candy in her hand and eats it.
Noone explains that on the table, among the spools of threads, needles and bits of ribbon, was a puppet with rusty shears that stuck through his torso, the blades pinned him down onto the table. As Noone looked at the puppet, she felt as if she too could feel the blades through her own body. Noone looked at the puppets wide face and saw it had a painted wide down turned mouth, a frown, and sagging cheeks. It had gleaming black eyes and threads of twine with frayed edges dangling from the only arm he had.
Noone yawns, feeling herself get sleepy. Noone recounts that the puppet also wore clothing that was rough worn, old and damaged, similar to the clothing worn by the carnival people she saw in Rusty’s show, back in chapter 4. As Noone leaned to get a closer look at the puppet, the puppet jolted to life and grabbed her leg. As the puppet yanked her leg, she fell, struggling to break free from its grasp as she kicked it. As the puppet tightly held onto her ankle, she looked around and saw a bottle within reach. Grabbing the bottle, she smashed it against the puppets head, resulting in the puppet letting go of her ankle and cease moving all together. As the puppet stopped, so did the music playing in the room. With her leg now free, she jumped off the table and into the wooden chest she opened before. After closing the lid to the chest, with her still inside, she looked through the keyhole to spy into the room. In the room, she saw a new mannequin standing in the door frame, wearing a beautiful dress. Noone could only see her back.
Noone pauses, struggling to stay awake. As she closes her eyes, the Counsellor’s voice becomes faint to her. Noticing that she has nearly fallen asleep, he encourages her to keep falling deeper into her sleep.
Noone continues to talk in a dreary voice, she says that the new mannequins movements were stiff and mechanical, her body was still as her neck began to twist. Noone noticed the mannequin's hair was too shimmery, her lips too wet, and her eyes too glassy or too elegant to be considered real or fully fake. The mannequin's head turned all around, and quickly noticed the puppet on the table as well as the broken bottle. As Noone saw the mannequin jitter, she burrowed herself into the costumes to better hide herself while in the chest. The mannequin opened the chest Noone was in, but did not notice her inside. Instead, the mannequin took a tan trench coat from the chest and began to sew a tear on the coat with a single long seam, from the use of the sewing machine. As Noone watched the mannequin sew the trench coat, she felt as if the Nowhere was sewing pieces of her back together, to make her strong again and pain free.
As Noone’s words slow down, her breathing deepens, the Counsellor whispers to himself that she is nearly asleep. Noone recounts seeing the mannequin reach for a gunny sack next and began to sew the single slit on it. Realizing that the mannequin would soon reach for her next, but knowing there was no other way to escape, she jumped up out of the clothing and grabbed the lid to the chest to shut it once again. Noone held the lid closed tight so the mannequin would not be able to open the chest again, but she knew holding the lid shut was something she could not do forever.
Noone stops speaking, now asleep. The Counsellor begins pressing various keys on the apparatus, concluding Noone has now reached the hypnagogic threshold, a transitional stage between wakefulness and sleep, in which sensory perceptions can be experienced. The Counsellor prepares to connect their minds through the apparatus before she finally crosses over. After he harmonizes their frequencies, he will prepare to put himself to sleep.
As Noone listens to the Counsellor typing the keyboard on the apparatus, the sound becomes distant, until finally she finds herself back inside the chest of clothing. Noone tells the Counsellor she can hear someone is opening the chest, but he is surprised to learn this as it is still too soon for her to cross the Threshold, the space between their world and the Nowhere, and into the Nowhere. He is unable to see anything yet through the apparatus, but Noone informs him there is nothing to see as the perfect lady is gone, the only thing she sees is darkness all around her. The darkness is so intense, she is unable to see her own hand in front of her. As the Counsellor continues to work on the apparatus, Noone tells she feels as if she is both asleep and awake. The Counsellor is surprised to learn Noone is both asleep and awake as it normally only occurs under certain conditions, and although he does not know why it is happening to her now, he is thrilled it is happening nonetheless and instructs her not to do anything.
As Noone remains in the dark, she realizes it is not darkness, it is a mist so black and thin it only half exists. Noone realizes she is currently in the halfway place, what the Counsellor calls the Threshold, which is the space between their world and the Nowhere. The Counsellor tells Noone to wait for him. Noone realizes she has been in the halfway place before, with the Candleman. The Counsellor tells Noone to close her eyes and not move, but she informs him she is unable to move at all, she can only feel herself sinking and floating, there is no floor for her to walk on, there is only the mist, which will spread its "fingers" to allow her to see herself, as if rebuilding her piece by piece.
Noone feels her sense of direction is gone, unable to differentiate which way is up or down, but regardless of what way she is looking , she tells the Counsellor she can see millions of stars twinkling brighter than any normal stars would. Although she feels as if she has been floating and sinking in the dark mist for ages, she does not feel tired. Suddenly, Noone sees a door in the distance and asks the Counsellor if he can see it. The Counsellor, shocked to learn she has found a door, tells her to wait for him and to not go towards the door without him. Although he is still preparing himself and the apparatus, he knows he is close to completing what he needs to finally join her in the Threshold.
As Noone looks around the darkness, she realizes that no matter where she turns, the door is always straight ahead, getting closer and closer to her. Noone notices the door's details, it is ancient, the color of twilight, but is unsure if it is made up of knotted wood or liquid, or both at the same time. Noone looks at the door frame and notices that it is wiggling all about. Noone notices there is no door knob, but there is a shape of an eye at the center of the door.
The Counsellor is no longer heard typing on the keyboard of the apparatus, signifying he is now ready to join her in the Threshold. After a moment of silence, the Counsellor hears knocking and asks Noone if someone is at the door. Noone tells whoever is on the other side of the door to "come in", but is confused as to why she is saying this, when it is she who is outside the door. As Noone stares at the door, the door begins to open. Noone whispers out, “There you are '', but although the Counsellor wonders if Noone is now able to see him in the Threshold, she reveals that it is the Candleman she sees, on the other side of the door. Noone tells the Counsellor to listen for the Ferryman, and as the Counsellor silently listens, he realizes he can almost hear the Ferryman’s presence.
Noone asks the Ferryman why he decided to bring her to the Nowhere. At the same time, the Counsellor also asks the Ferryman who he is and if he took Cici. Noone's voice repeats the Ferryman's words as he speaks, saying, “Only youth blooms. Petals pure. But uprooted, spoils wait within”. Noone asks where they will go past the door, however, the Counsellor tells Noone to stop talking to the Ferryman, then asks the Ferryman where his sister is and if she is past the door. The Ferryman responds, with Noone repeating everything he says, saying, “A world as wide as the deep. And narrow as a well”.
Noone tells the Counsellor she is stepping through the door. Panicked, the Counsellor tells the Ferryman not to take Noone as he needs her. Noone's voice repeats the Ferryman's words as he speaks, saying, “Sink. Sink into these tideless waters.” Noone tells the Counsellor the Ferryman has taken her hand, welcoming her to the other side of the door. As Noone takes a step inside the door to look into the other side, she tells the Counsellor she can see stairs going in every direction at once. Noone tells the Counsellor she is amazed to see more stars, as well as constellations in rings around a pulsing red moon. However, upon closer inspection, Noone tells the Counsellor the moon and stars are all eyes too, of every size and shape imaginable. Noone describes the eyes as watchful, shimmering, blinking, with their light dripping down into the dark mist. Noone’s voice begins to overlap over a second, distorted, voice as she tells the Counsellor she can feel the eyes looking at her, into her, and somehow knows the eyes like what they see.
The Counsellor tells Noone not to let the door close, then tells the Ferryman to leave her with him. Believing the Ferryman is unable to hear the Counsellor, Noone tells the Ferryman that the Counsellor wants to come. Noone's voice repeats the Ferryman's words as he speaks, saying, “Too long in the tooth. I feed the spectrums other end”. Although she does not understand what the Ferryman is saying, she quickly realizes the Ferryman has been talking to the Counsellor the entire time. The Counsellor yells out, telling the Ferryman he has waited his whole life for the day he would finally cross over to the Nowhere, that he has earned passage and demands the Ferryman invite him to his world. Noone attempts to relay the Counsellor’s words to the Ferryman, but the Ferryman laughs, as he is able to hear the Counsellor on his own. The Ferryman tells the Counsellor, “A toe dipped, but to plunge you must be pushed”.
Noone looks at the door and notices it changing, thumping. However, as she looks at it, she realizes it is not the door that’s changing, it's the image in the frame. Noone now sees an image of children with blurry faces. Noone apologizes to the Counsellor and informs him that the door is now drifting away from them. The Counsellor yells out, begging the Ferryman to tell him how he can cross into the Nowhere. The Ferryman responds and tells the Counsellor, “A quarter will be granted. The toll set in torments not yet paid”. The Counsellor cries out, telling the Ferryman he has nothing left to give and does not understand what else he could want. The Ferryman looks at Noone and tells her, “Sleep. Sleep now Ruth, sleep into Nowhere”, referring to her by her true name. Noone asks the Ferryman, and not the Counsellor, to take hold of her hand as she would be lost without him.
The Counsellor watches Noone's body disappear from the session room and cries out, asking where she is, begging her not to go as he is desperate to see his Cici again. Noone looks up at the pulsing red moon, looking on as smoky fingers mix with the blinking eyes. As she continues to stare at the red moon, her voice permanently overlaps over a second, distorted, voice. She looks on as the moon begins to open up. As everything around her swirls, she feels like she is finally feeling like herself again. The Counsellor continues to cry out, begging Noone not to go without him.
After everything falls silent, Ruth wonders why the darkness is still all around her, as it would normally disappear before she finally found herself in a new place in the Nowhere, just as she would in her previous travels. Noone contemplates what is happening, but doesn't feel any panic. Noone realizes the secret was that “it” hides in the dark, something her body alone knew all along. As Noone remains silent in the dark, the door slowly closes shut.
Back in the session room, the Counsellor falls into a deep distress upon realizing Noone has not returned. Devastated over losing another person to the Ferryman, he lashes out in anger, throwing and destroying numerous things in the room. The recording temporarily cuts and returns. The Counsellor is heard again pacing back and forth over Noone’s permanent disappearance, believing she had abandoned him, wanting to get away from him. The Counsellor falls into an emotional turmoil as he thinks back to Cici, wondering if she abandoned him as well, but concludes she wouldn’t have, not if it meant she would leave him, her own little brother, behind.
Later, after the Counsellor has had time to calm down, he contemplates everything that happened and swears he could hear what Noone heard. He thinks back to what the Ferryman told him about how a quarter will be granted, but he doesn’t know who the Ferryman was referring to to grant that quarter. The Counsellor also thinks about the toll the Ferryman said needed to be paid in order to enter the Nowhere. The Counsellor contemplates if what he heard from the Ferryman was true or if it was all meaningless lies. The Counsellor is angered over the possibility of the Ferryman tricking him. The Counsellor pauses, thinking about everything that's happened, wishing he could simply sink like Noone did, and continue to sink lower and lower, all the way down, until he too can wake up again.
The recording stops and later continues recording the Counsellor, who has regained himself and is now cleaning up the damage he had caused in the room. As he sweeps the broken glass and debris, he contemplates his heavy burden in knowing the logical laws of space and time are false. The Counsellor continues to think about how Ruth’s dream still lingers in him and how it has not only fallen down on his personal well being, but has even affected the world around him. The Counsellor states he has done nothing but repeat the words the Ferryman gave him. As the Counsellor thinks about the Ferryman’s words being true, and accepts the possibility of there being another way to cross into the Threshold, he swears that once he does find the way to cross, he will ensure that the path is paved with bricks of fear to remain within reach and easily accessible. He proclaims he will review every tape to uncover every secret, knowing the answers he needs lay within everything he has gathered thus far. The Counsellor thinks back to when he was using the apparatus, and how he was so close to being swept away, had Noone not disappeared.
The Counsellor is startled by the sound of the door opening, he looks over and sees a little boy named Ethan, another patient of the ward. The Counsellor tells Ethan he should not be out of his room, but after a moment of observing him and noting his lack of response, the Counsellor realizes he is sleepwalking. The Counsellor tells the boy that in the midst of his dreaming, those dreams somehow led the boy to him. The Counsellor tells the boy he is simply sleepwalking, a common parasomnia in children. However, after a moment of contemplation, the Counsellor questions if the boy's sleepwalking is a new symptom, signifying something has changed. The Counsellor realizes Ethan has been taking notice of the mess in the room and tells him that he was only looking for something he lost. But as the Counsellor stares at Ethan, a sudden revelation comes to mind and he tells the boy he may have found what he lost. The Counsellor escorts Ethan to the door and tells him to go back to sleep, but tomorrow they will dream and dream, until they sleep again a new. Before the boy leaves, the Counsellor reaches for the jar of candy and tells him to take one. As Ethan takes a candy from the jar, the Counsellor returns to his desk to set the candy jar down, and with a menacing tone he says, “Sweets for my sweet”, just as he had once said towards Noone.
Characters
- Noone
- The Counsellor
- The Candleman
- Cici (mentioned)
- The Puppet
- The Perfect Lady
- Ethan
- The Blurred Children in the Doorframe
Trivia
- When Noone finds a yellow raincoat, Otto hastily responds and asks if anyone else was around, implying that Cici was the original owner of the raincoat.
- When Otto acknowledges the raincoat, a tune similar to the Little Nightmares main theme can be quietly heard in the background.
Videos
